Nice attack: at the trial, the civil parties take the floor to testify to the horror

More than two weeks after the opening of the trial of the July 14 attack in Nice, the testimony of the civil parties begins before the special assize court. Until October 21, some 300 victims or relatives are expected to come to the stand to recount the horror of that night of July 14, 2016. Nearly 300 civil parties testify, from Tuesday September 20, in Paris at the trial of the attack of July 14 in Nice, the opportunity to tell the court “the atrocity” of what they experienced, to “turn a page” or to “pay tribute” to the disappeared. “I will try to show who was Camille, what she had done in her short life. It will be a hymn to life”, thus provides Anne Murris, who will evoke on September 29 her only daughter, killed at 27 by the ram truck of Mohamed Lahouaiej -Bouhlel on July 14, 2016. The 31-year-old Tunisian national deliberately drove into the crowd gathered on the Promenade des Anglais for the National Day, killing 86 and injuring more than 450. Since September 5, the special assize court of Paris judges eight defendants, members of the assailant’s entourage or suspected of arms trafficking. >> To (re) see on France 24: Thierry Vimal, father of a victim of the Nice attack: “Nothing should be expected from the trial” After summoning investigators, technical experts and trauma specialists, the court devotes five weeks to hearing the civil parties who wish, 288 to date. Some were present on the Promenade des Anglais the evening of the attack and were injured or traumatized, others lost one or more loved ones, sometimes an entire family. “These depositions will allow” to have a more human point of view on what happened [le 14 juillet 2016]”, after the projection last Thursday of the video surveillance images of the attack, observes Virginie Le Roy, lawyer for 105 civil parties, of whom about fifteen will testify. ” The words of the victims in a terrorist trial are essential to realize the atrocity of the facts”, also believes Yves Hartemann, lawyer for around 60 civil parties. “I don’t think I’m going to recount the scene in detail”, however indicates Sophie Desvergnes, musician who played on a platform the evening of the attack. She hears “above all about the aftermath”, “telling the judges, the public how much our lives can be transformed, [même si] I didn’t lose anyone that night, I wasn’t physically injured. “Things have never gone away, they are there permanently in me”. , explains to AFP Héloïse Joly, neuropsychologist in Nice, who evaluated many victims of the attack and testified on Friday at the trial. to see that we’re not the only ones going through this, to understand that it’s something normal. It’s very guilt-free”, she adds. The challenge is different for the “mourners”, explains Anne Murris, it is “work against oblivion”, to “pay homage” to loved ones who have disappeared “in the solemnity of a court”. “A dreaded exercise” “It’s an exercise that I dread”, confides the president of Memorial des anges, aware that at the helm she will again become “the mother of Camille Murris, immersed six years back, when I was looking for my child [après l’attentat]”. Some have written a text to the word, others have for the moment “bubbles of ideas” in mind, like Stéphane Erbs, who will evoke September 30 – “the day of my birthday” – his wife Rachel , one of the first victims of the assailant’s murderous journey. The co-president of Promenade des anges, who will speak for a second time on behalf of its 400 members, intends to “highlight the beautiful things we do in the association ” – tutoring, outings, equitherapy and shiatsu sessions – “rather than complaining”. is not naive, and that I do not believe in their speech”, affirming that they did not know the intentions of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel. Conversely, “I do not grant them any affect, any thought. I don’t even have anger towards them”, explains Anne Murris. “Even if the driver had been in the dock, for me it is not revenge, since those who died will not return” , also believes the musician Sophie Desvergnes. With AFP